Comment on the Website Above You

rgphoto

I hope this type of thing is allowed here. The people over at Etsy.com use these all the time to promote their sites and improve their SEO.

Here's how it works:

1. Visit the website of the poster above you.
2. Leave a comment on one of their galleries, and maybe rank a photo or two.
3. Come back here. Once you've commented, reply to the post above you - bumping you to the bottom of the thread.
4. The next person who comes by will visit your site and comment on yours.
5. Feel free to jump back in again.

Think of it as a way of networking. Besides driving traffic to each other's sites, the comments will also help boost our SEO.

Hope you guys like this!

Art Scott

Gotta ask......is Robinson your first name?????
Your about me is lacking a bit actually a lot....no bio.

Ranked a couple of shots......Like your layout .....good site.

Wachel

Art, I like your stuff and always enjoy looking at your photos.

Your watermark is crazy colorful but I understand 100%.

woellerd

Hi Michael, I really like the nice clean look of your home page. I also like that there is a countdown of sorts showing before the slideshow starts. This lets me know that something is coming. Your images show a high level of imagination in composition and presentation. You present the subject well. On the down side, I could not find any way to leave a comment or to rate the shots, unless I totally missed it somewhere. Nice Site.
Regards, Dave

heatherfeather

Dave,
You have some amazing scenery photos in there! Also your birdie shots are fantastic! Your site was easy to navigate and I loved the stretchy slideshow.

Favorite photo I saw: the lighthouse in the bog on the slideshow. I liked it because I didn't see any water, and found that unusual for a lighthouse photo.

The only nit that I could come up with was that I found the black and blue on the edge of boring, but not horrendous by any means. But I am a color person. So take that with a grain of salt.

rgphoto

Art Scott wrote:

Gotta ask......is Robinson your first name?????
Your about me is lacking a bit actually a lot....no bio.

Ranked a couple of shots......Like your layout .....good site.

Haha yes'sir. First name is Robinson, last name is Greig. The about me page has been on the list for a while now, but it seemed to slip out of my mind. Thanks for reminding me. It's up now.

----

Heather -

I left a comment on your guestbook, but I'll repeat it here. Your site really looks great! It's easy to navigate and I found myself running through a bunch of your galleries. Love your work (if we can call it that) too.

-Rob

Wil Davis

Nice job!

Easy to find my way around, and very consistent so that I always know where I am, without having stuff popping up all over the place, and trying to grab my attention with musak and stuff…

Very professional!



- Wil

Here's mine

(sorry Robinson, my comment was for Heather's site…

…I think we have a potential confusion here!)

ColoradoSkier

Will, I like the gallery, but is that all there is? It isn't readily apparent if you are available to do commission work, or if you do portrait services, etc. Great pics though.

I already have some ideas on what I need to do with mine, but now I am curious to see what someone here thinks...

humanrr

ColoradoSkier wrote:

I already have some ideas on what I need to do with mine, but now I am curious to see what someone here thinks...

Chester, I like how your website tells exactly what you do and price ranges for typical shoots. It is very informative.

I don't know much about macro, landscape, or industrial photography (I'm kind of a one-trick pony) but I think your snowflake series is amazing and your landscapes are beautiful. Even though I tend to convert all my shots to grayscale (probably as a crutch to compensate for white balance issues, lol), I like the color versions of your landscapes much better than the grayscale versions. I also particularly like the shot of the braided hose.

Regarding the ergonomics of your website, I found the calendar to be a bit distracting and found myself wishing there were fewer bells and whistles on a page. Perhaps a cleaner page would be easier to navigate?

Angelo

MODERATOR'S COMMENTS

Robinson - Great idea and I hope it proves to be worthwhile as well as a lot of fun.

Everyone should understand there will be traffic jams as responses grow and responses will not always be in their expected order due to variances in the time different people click on "reply" versus when they actually view a site and complete their comments.

Please make sure you're all clicking on "quote" as you reply or start your comments with the name of the person whose site you've visited.

Snowgirl

humanrr wrote:

Even though I tend to convert all my shots to grayscale (probably as a crutch to compensate for white balance issues, lol), I like the color versions of your landscapes much better than the grayscale versions. I also particularly like the shot of the braided hose.

I visited your website and found your gallery of fight shots interesting. Some of the action shots were excellent - including the flying sweat. I tried to leave a comment but after fighting with the spam blocker 3 or 4 times, I gave up.

Personally, I'd like to see some colour shots as well. It seems a little dull in 100% black and white.

Do you shoot in RAW? That would allow you to solve some of your white balance issues. Or, get a grey card and go that route.

rgphoto

Snowgirl wrote:

I visited your website and found your gallery of fight shots interesting. Some of the action shots were excellent - including the flying sweat. I tried to leave a comment but after fighting with the spam blocker 3 or 4 times, I gave up.

Personally, I'd like to see some colour shots as well. It seems a little dull in 100% black and white.

Do you shoot in RAW? That would allow you to solve some of your white balance issues. Or, get a grey card and go that route.

Hey Ceci,

I checked out your site. I really like your work, however I think your site could use a little work. I get the impression that your site isn't the main face of your business, and you just use it to display your images. If that isn't the case then there's a whole list of things I would do. ie. banner, change your photo titles to better your seo, easier navigation, etc.

I commented on your Bar Harbour gallery - beautiful images!

JohnBiggs

RG. Cool thread. I commented on your Macro Gallery.

eoren1

Found this thread through a search for 'calendars' of all things.
John - I don't see a site listed so I went to Robinson's
Robinson - I see you did get that About Me page filled out. Nice shots. I like the site - clean, easy to navigate.
If anyone follows me, please comment on my blog at http://wednesdaysinmhd.com
Thanks!

kathiemt

Thanks for bringing it back up again then Eyal. I do wonder about getting other photographers to visit our sites. I belong to other forums and while my Facebook 'likes' and my blog hits have gone up, it doesn't mean that my potential audience is there - people who might want to purchase photos. So I keep looking to see what else I can do to break out beyond the audience of photographers. For all that, it's good to see other tog's sites so I can learn from what they've done.

I like what you've got set up Eyal on your blog. I love Wordpress too. Is that the sun in those shots for June? Amazing. I love your pussy cat photos! Gorgeous.

shniks

kathiemt wrote: »

Thanks for bringing it back up again then Eyal. I do wonder about getting other photographers to visit our sites. I belong to other forums and while my Facebook 'likes' and my blog hits have gone up, it doesn't mean that my potential audience is there - people who might want to purchase photos. So I keep looking to see what else I can do to break out beyond the audience of photographers. For all that, it's good to see other tog's sites so I can learn from what they've done.

I like what you've got set up Eyal on your blog. I love Wordpress too. Is that the sun in those shots for June? Amazing. I love your pussy cat photos! Gorgeous.

Hi Kathie,


You have some nice work on your site.

I have two comments on the site itself. I think the banner image is too big. I checked out your site on a 768 px monitor and it looked a bit big (in height). Secondly, I would love to see the galleries above the 'popular photos'. Some people might not think of scrolling down to see the galleries. I think the galleries need to fit on the page when the page first opens.


Cheers,

kathiemt

shniks wrote: »

Hi Kathie,


You have some nice work on your site.

I have two comments on the site itself. I think the banner image is too big. I checked out your site on a 768 px monitor and it looked a bit big (in height). Secondly, I would love to see the galleries above the 'popular photos'. Some people might not think of scrolling down to see the galleries. I think the galleries need to fit on the page when the page first opens.


Cheers,

Thanks Nikhil. the site was just set up on the weekend so I still have lots of work to do on it. I'll eventually customise it all once I've had a chance to absorb what needs to be done. I appreciate your comments and will review what I've got set up. Thanks for looking!

zoomn

Hi Nikhil,

Love your site. Your work is outstanding!!! I especially like your rectangular gallery headings. Very different.

Pat

zoomer

Hi Zoomn,
Only fitting that Zoomer would critique your site .
Your nature work is first rate, and your miscellaneous gallery had some very creative shots.
I found your work to be creative and technically very nicely done, particularly your nature and random subject work.
Your site was simple and straight forward and very easy to navigate. I found your About Me and Information sections to be clear and to the point.
Nice site.
MikeR

zoomer

What about me???? anyone....

Sam

zoomer wrote: »

What about me???? anyone....

Zoomer, Your galleries nav button is broke.

The home page is a cheap rip off of my home page that I ripped from Andy.

Your sexist images are an ill conceived and contrived attempt at luring in drooling male viewers. The fact that it works is even more worrisome.

Seriously:

I find the text on your about me page small and difficult to read. The same for your pricing page. I also think it would be better to not link to another site to actually get a price.

Time to upgrade your website. The quality of your site does not come close to the high quality of your photography.

Not trying to be harsh.......you deserve better!

Also I know I am opening myself up for criticism. I also could probable use some ideas to improve my site.

Sam

zoomer

Thanks Sam.
I will check into that Galleries button, didn't know it was busted.
Will also look into the small print, didn't know it could be bigger.
I know I need to invest in a "real" website. I just have been dreading spending any money on it and the Smugsite is SO easy to use and play around with.

I am confused on the linking to another page to get a price comment??
There is only one price it is the same for everything, and it appears to me to be right there with no link required. The links by each category are to photo galleries.

Thanks for giving me Real feeback.
I do appreciate it!

Sam

zoomer wrote: »

Thanks Sam.
I will check into that Galleries button, didn't know it was busted.
Will also look into the small print, didn't know it could be bigger.
I know I need to invest in a "real" website. I just have been dreading spending any money on it and the Smugsite is SO easy to use and play around with.

I am confused on the linking to another page to get a price comment??
There is only one price it is the same for everything, and it appears to me to be right there with no link required. The links by each category are to photo galleries.

Thanks for giving me Real feeback.
I do appreciate it!

Zoomer,

RE price page: Sorry I kinda breezed through and just saw a lot of small print with links that took up a lot of horizontal space.

I think you / we can make our sites look better without leaving SmugMug or paying for a custom website / homepage with links to SmugMug's photo galleries.

Of course if money is no object............:D

Sam

zoomer

I know...problem is I know O about computers and programming and such and all my spare time is spent taking and processing photos

I need to just bite the bullet and upgrade the website....one of these days .

kathiemt

shniks wrote: »

Hi Kathie,


You have some nice work on your site.

I have two comments on the site itself. I think the banner image is too big. I checked out your site on a 768 px monitor and it looked a bit big (in height). Secondly, I would love to see the galleries above the 'popular photos'. Some people might not think of scrolling down to see the galleries. I think the galleries need to fit on the page when the page first opens.


Cheers,

You'll see a big difference in my site now. It's been a constant labour of love every night plus over the weekend.

kathiemt

zoomer wrote: »

I know...problem is I know O about computers and programming and such and all my spare time is spent taking and processing photos

I need to just bite the bullet and upgrade the website....one of these days .

I agree that your text is small. Needs to be larger.

Also, I encourage you to buy a domain and use it. They don't cost a lot of money, and whatever happens with your website in the future, the domain remains with you and any regulars following you can always find you.

shniks

kathiemt wrote: »

You'll see a big difference in my site now. It's been a constant labour of love every night plus over the weekend.

That's much better Kathie. Looking good now. You are getting there.


Cheers,

justin24

Hi Shniks your work is absolutely amazing especially your landscape work. I would love to know how you made your home page image that large, did you use Smugmugs easy customizer? And how did you do your gallery icons that way? Anyways I am in awe of your images.

justin24

Sorry my website is www.justinschlesinger.com

shniks

justin24 wrote: »

Hi Shniks your work is absolutely amazing especially your landscape work. I would love to know how you made your home page image that large, did you use Smugmugs easy customizer? And how did you do your gallery icons that way? Anyways I am in awe of your images.

Hi Justin. Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate it! I have to say, that the first image on your website's homepage (the one with the 'red riding hood' girl standing behind that tree) is STUNNING. I have it open in my browser and am just mesmerized with the play of the red color against the monochrome background. I wanted to leave you some comments on your guestbook, but you don't have one (get one - seriously... )

1) Okay the homepage is created using Fastline's Slideshow. Here is the thread:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=190081

2) For the galleries page, follow this thread from post #20

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=191960


For the icons, I simply took my photo in Photoshop and then cropped it to my required height and width. Then I used FM Frames (Fred Miranda Frames - it retails for $12 and is totally worth it) to create the frames. You can purchase the frames actions for photoshop from here:

http://www.fredmiranda.com/shopping/Frames

Once you have downloaded and installed the frames, chose the frame that you want (I used thin, no matte) and play the action. FM Frames will create the frame for you around your photo. Once you have that, create another layer and insert the text that you want. Having done that upload it to a hidden gallery and then use the instructions in the thread above to post the gallery icons.

BTW, you don't need FM Frames to create a frame around the photo. You can have the photo up without the frame or create one yourself in Photoshop!

Let me know how it goes.


Cheers,

justin24

I will asap Thank You